Yeah..... I don't actually drink anymore BUT my neighbors drink like fish and all their friends and now my mate drinks too, so when they get together I just set out a bag or bowl on the counter by the waste bin so that instead of tossing the caps in the bin, they toss them in the bowl. my mate drinks the best kind of caps (that's how I rate beer now, by how good it's caps are) because he doesn't drink the american piss (no offense to anyone who enjoys american beer) that the neighbors drink and the caps he gets are so much cooler than the americans, and he's even willing to try a beer JUST FOR THE CAP, so I can have a certain cap style for my creations!

voodoo, that is awesome. beer cap ornaments. i'm going to have to start drinking beer now for the holidays...

pepper, i'm going to have to steal that idea. except i just make actual gingerbread cookie ornaments, so the bites will be considerably less effort. chomp!

last year (my son's first xmas) was the first time i did the whole rigamarole in ten years, so i'm pretty rusty. but i have a strict homemade-only ornaments policy, so i'll check back in if i think of anything worth sharing.

i'm making ornaments too, sets of three brown felt gingerbread people with white rickrack trim as piped on icing. pretty traditional 'scept one of the three has a big bite out of it's head, ha ha ha! think my family will get a kick out of it or just think i'm a grinchy sicko?

i keep losing my user id's but........i have tossed the beer cap curtain idea and have started making beer cap christmas tree ornaments!!!!!! and they ROCK!!!!!!! it all started because my mum has this tradition of swapping christmas tree ornaments in the family and this year she wanted to do it at Thanksgiving and since I had no money and no time to get any ornaments from the store, i busted out the good ole' hot glu gun and got busy with some awsome beer cap / sno flake-ish / star-ish ornaments.......my digi cam is out of sorts at the moment but if i can figure out how to photo them with my cellular and then send to my email and then export to a file and download here, i will...... whew!my fave so far has been the one i made with my all time fave ale caps, NEWCASTLE...... all yellow and red with blue stars in the middle of each..... it rocks!!!!!

i'll try to explain the pattern but i might get confusing, sorry.i start with a center beer cap and hot glue 6 more beer caps around the outer edge of the center beer cap. the caps are glued edge to edge, so to speak, so the front of the ornament is the designed side of the caps and the back is the open, underside of the caps (so it's only pretty on one side)once i have a cap in the middle, circled by 6 caps, i then glue 1 cap at the juncture of each 2 (outer) caps for a total of 6 more caps. when i say juncture i mean centered between the place where 2 of the original 6 inner caps meet. the end result kind of resembles the shape of a star of david, and it looks sooooo cool!then, i decide what is my "top" most point so i can attach a yarn hanger. i make a loop of yarn and knot it, flip the ornament over, place the knotted end of yarn IN the top most beer cap, run a thick line of hot glue around the top face, outer edge of another, spare, beer cap and then press that beer cap, face down, into the back of the top most beer cap on the ornament where i have placed the knotted yarn. so the yarn ends up sandwiched between the 2 beer caps and the hot glue around the edge holds it all in place.

i currently have my ornaments hanging on my "christmas tree" which happens to be a huge fake palm tree that used to serve as a hermit crab home until they jumped ship........ literally. my children think it's cool though and we have added some of their artwork and some mardi gras beads from a parade and it's pretty kick'in if i do say so myself......

anybody else have any off the wall, non traditional holiday craft ideas?

I'm not a scrapbooker, but I keep a visual journal which, um, often looks like a rough and ready scrapbook and sometimes I read scrapbooky stuff, like Scrap City: Scrapbooking for Urban Divas and Small Town Rebels and Legacy magazine.

There's lots of potential out there for cool scrapbooking, let me think on it...www.sacredkitschstudio.comwww.mantofev.comwww.animadesigns.com

Here's a link to a thread on Craftster about "alternative" scrapbooking resources - looks like the answer is "right now, not very much available" but others are looking the same direction, it's only a matter of time. In the meantime there are also great suggestions there for how to do some of your own.

there are some absolutely amazing atc's (artist trading cards) on craftster. not quite scrapbooking but along the same lines, good inspiration anyhow.voodooevilangeline, i've been yarning too, crochet though (pronounced by me as crotch-et, ha ha). so far i have a hat with a gigantic pompom and one side of two pairs of wrist warmers. i swear i'm going to finish the mates, i just keep starting another pair to see if i can get the pattern right before i commit to more. i hafta, hafta learn how to read a pattern. it's really sad making stuff up on my own, takes three times as long. moving and crafting eh? can be so tough but if you aren't driving it's an awesome stretch of time with nuthin' else to do but craft.

voodoo.. have you done the curtain yet? you could buy little weights to weigh down the bottom.. i'm sure michaels would have something..?

Hey hey...... it's me, Voodoo...... I can't get logged on as Voodoo anymore and I can't recover or create a new password and I can't get anyone who can help me out, I think the emails aren't getting through or whatever..... but anyway, this is me now......I haven't done the curtain yet because I got side tracked learning to knit and I've been cranking out big, fat, chunky, fuzzy scarves!!!!!! I'm soooo excited over it...... I learned by watching a video on the net...... so cool since I'm a lefthanded knitter and could never find anyone to teach me lefthanded.....I am still planning on the curtain, just got alot going on right now..... possible move to Chicago in the works, hubby just got home tonight from interviews up there......I will definitely post when I get it done and maybe with some pics.....I'm also planning to make some of those dividers, like room dividers, japanese style and all...... was going to have the hubby weld up some cool frames and then I was going to use some semi-sheer fabric on metal rods (removable) to create the panels..... i just got to draw up the idea for him so he can make it for me.....about the scrap booking...... i don't do it but mostly because how was mentioned about it being all soccer mom-ish..... i always check out the stuff at the craft stores but alot of it looks so cheesey and not at all like what i would want in my scrapbook (if i had one)..... i just wish there was a place to get some more creative, off the wall stuff for scrapbooking...... i don't want pastels and ponies, i want black and red, green and orange, skulls and black kitties, goth scrolls.... you get the idea...... some plcae to get all those kind of things in one place would be great, instead of having to search all over creation......maybe there is a place, i just haven't found it.

Are there any cool scrapbookers on this site? I've been scrappin' awhile, but most sites just have soccer mom stuff. I like to be artistic with my pages, and I've yet to find a good place to discuss ideas, etc.

Resurecting the thread because I don't want to see it die, even if I don't post much!

Also, I've got a question for all you who bead: what online bead stores do you guys frequent? I normally order from Fire Mountain and Shipwreck Beads, but I'm looking for something in particular (8x10mm flower cones) that I can't find a decent selection of at my usual haunts in the size I need.

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"After all those hours of concentrated effort, I come home pure as the driven snow." -Gidget

i just saw an amazing donated quilt square project on craftster. all the pieces were mailed to this girl or swapped and they were awsome.i'm thinking about doing this as a fund raiser for the local women's center, i know if a put the call out i'll get an abundance of donations, this is a super crafty town. now all i need is a theme, got any ideas?

Angelle, I would just make the "fill in" fabric bigger, and cut down the lighter spots, does that make sense? I think denim skirts often look even cuter with less of the original leg at the top.

Voodoo -- I like the curtains idea. I also was recently in an apartment where a girl had glued bottle caps to her coffee table, packing them really tight, and they looked good.

I jave a lot of jewelry supplies but I think I need lessons on the more complicated (i.e. not just stringing beads and knotting the ends) techniques. I keep my stuff in little cases in a larger box, and in an old library card catalog a friend gave me.

So, I have been collecting beer caps for monthes now and have a ton of them and I'm trying to figure some cool crafty thing to do with them.I am thinking to make something like beaded curtains, with beer caps and beads. Maybe drill or tap a hole in each cap and string it on some hemp twine or whatever along with some cool glass beads and stuff and then string them all from a dowel that I can hang over a door frame or window. Because caps are light I kind of want to find something heavier to weigh down the strands so they hang well.Hmmmmm........ think think think........

what the hell is wrong with me? it's my friend's little girl's bday tomorrow and for some reason i am making fairy princess dressed for not only her but her two sisters as well. right. now. it's after 11. i'm getting picked up by my ride at 9am. i'm knee deep in purple silk and maribou, netting, crinoline and lame. darn darn darn it all to heck.

So I'm making a skirt out of a pair of jeans and I have an idea how it's all supposed to go together. I have run into a bit of a snag though. My jeans have wear and lighter spots, and pilly texture in the chub-rub spots and it shows in the back. I'm wondering if there would be any easy way to do something about that without bringing in a different fabric. It's going to be knee length and I planned to use the bottoms of the legs for the fill-in fabric. I had hoped this would be a 'go with pretty much anything' kind of skirt and that I could maybe use it for work if it turned out well enough. So... any ideas?